Kanō Domain

The Kanō Domain (加納藩, Kanō-han) was a Japanese domain of the Edo period, located in Mino Province (modern-day Gifu, Gifu).

History

The territory of the Kanō domain was once ruled from Gifu, by Oda Hidenobu, Oda Nobunaga's grandson. However, as Hidenobu sided with Ishida Mitsunari at the Battle of Sekigahara, his territory was confiscated by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Gifu Castle was dismantled. In 1601, Ieyasu granted the area to his son-in-law Okudaira Nobumasa, and allowed him to build a new castle at Kanō with the materials from the dismantled Gifu Castle. This was the birth of the Kanō domain. Nobumasa's placement at Kanō was meant to act as a check against the potentially hostile lords of the west, who might have wanted to march eastward against Ieyasu. Nobumasa retired in 1602, handing over the position of daimyo to his son Okudaira Tadamasa; however, he retained 40,000 of the domain's 100,000 koku as a "retirement fund," and continued to hold actual power, establishing a system of flood control and better aiding in the setup of the castle town. Nobumasa and Tadamasa died in quick succession; the third Okudaira lord of Kanō, Tadataka, died heirless in 1632, and so the Okudaira rule in Kanō came to an end.

The last lords of Kanō, the Nagai, became viscounts in the Meiji era.